Back in 1987, high school death metal act Cynic made their debut at the Cameo Theater on "Miami Metal Night" - sharing the bill with 10 other head-banging acts determined to out-slayer Slayer. Cynic, led by shredder guitarist Paul Masvidal and drummer Sean Reinert had the hair, but were more interested in chops than Satan. The pair were inseparable, joining forces backing up metal legend Chuck Schuldiner on Death's "Human" Lp when they were only 19, and then joining every jazz ensemble at Miami-Dade College's South Campus - wood-shedding and preparing for their own star turn.

That came about with the release of 1993's "Focus" Lp - which came out out on Roadrunner Records right when the band was losing interest in growling like cookie monster. So they hired a series of vocalists to do the death metal growls on their older material, while their newer songs employed a vocoder. Cynic did a few tours around the world, established themselves as prog-rock up-and-comers and recorded a demo which was rejected by Roadrunner for not being metal enough - which effectively killed the band.

Fast forward to 2006, Reinert and Masvidal - now living in Los Angeles - got the call to reform, and suddenly Cynic began playing sold-out festival dates in Eastern Europe. In 2008, the second Cynic Lp, "Traced In Air," was released in France and an improbable career was officially reborn hard. Critics tripped over themselves to declare the record a masterpiece, and with 15 years of Dream Theater being popular the pressure to be harder than the next band was off. Cynic were 21st century darlings.

This year, Cynic dropped "Retraced" an EP of reinterpreted material from "Traced In Air" and are winding up their first ever headlining US tour in Fort Lauderdale at The Culture Room Friday night. Allegedly, this will be the last show that Cynic will perform the material from "Focus.". Considering the last time Cynic played a gig in South Florida was in 1994 at the Plus 5 in Davie - you'd better get your fix this week. These boys know how to take their time.